I just caught up with Nuggets coach George Karl on the phone and got his thoughts on Al Harrington, the power forward who will sign with Denver:

“I’ve been an Al Harrington fan most of his career. As a young kid (out of high school), I think he did a good job and lately he’s asserted himself into an offensive weapon off the bench. I think he’s a very difficult matchup for most teams. You can play him at the three, even at the two a little bit and you can also play him up front at the four position.

“I think the situation with Kenyon (Martin) and Chris (Andersen) being out for however long they’re going to be out[1], we needed another guy who can play 25-30 minutes of basketball – and someone we feel confident who can help us win games. We made offers to Jermaine O’Neal and went after Udonis Haslem a little bit, and Al was on that list. I’m happy that we got him, happy that we got a guy that if we played a game tomorrow, he could play 30 minutes and help us win.

“I think his strength is offense, but he did come into the league as a defensive player as a young kid who used to take on all of the big-time forwards. I think he knows how to play defense, and as coaching goes, I won’t know until training camp, but I think he’s a pro, he knows systems and he’ll be able to adapt to converting and playing on the defensive end as a team.”